Reunion 2010 Alumni College Courses

Please check back for updated course information.

Session B Courses

The Making and Meaning of WineBill Waller, Professor of Economics
The Finger Lakes is the home of the 2nd largest wine producing region in the US. It is also home to the largest winder producer in the world. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the wine of the Finger Lakes. It will involve an introduction to winemaking and tasting. The focus will be on the particular strengths of the wine industry in this area to allow and encourage you to take full advantage of your visits to the Finger Lakes.

Two Cities: New York and TorontoJim Spates, Professor of Sociology and Pat McGuire, Professor of Economics
Using very different approaches to study two very different cities, New York and Toronto, in two very different countries, two very different cultures, we examine each city intensively. While we won't be able to visit each of these cities, as we and our students do during the semester, if you join us at our session we believe that we will be able to communicate why we and our students find these places so enticing, interesting and instructive.

All of us are at least a little unsure about what's coming next. We actually plan for it. (All of you insurance brokers out there know what I mean.) We weigh alternative actions based on our perception of risk: Has Toyota fixed the gas pedal? Is it OK to drive into Boston to see the Celtics in spite of the snow? Will the rain arrive or will I have to water the lawn again? We make decisions of that sort all the time. But, what about the citizens of Port au Prince in Haiti? or the residents of New Orleans? or people in central China or Indonesia? How do they live with the risk of earthquake, tsunami, or major storm, events outside the experience of most of us? Join me as we think about the hazards posed by the natural environment and how we deal with the uncertainties built into that environment.

Dance, Standing TallMichelle Ikle, Assistant Professor of Dance

This low-intensity movement workshop will provide participants with practical tools for looking and feeling your best everyday through postural awareness and re-education. Participants will learn simple lessons in lying, sitting, and standing that can help you look and feel more energetic and confident. Chronic back pain sufferers are welcome! Wear loose, comfortable clothing. This workshop will take place in the Winn-Seeley dance studio.

Siberia is big. Siberia is cold. Siberia is full of prisoners. Whether as a remote and forbidding place of exile, or a storehouse of untold natural resources, Siberia has long played a special role in our image of Russia. Join us to discuss these myths and modern-day Siberian realities from the perspective of the Russian Area Studies program's 2009 Modern Siberia seminar, in which 17 HWS students and three faculty members spent a month studying the culture and ecology of the Lake Baikal region.

In 2007, Paul Collier wrote The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It. In his study, he identifies four poverty problem areas for less developed counties: 1) the conflict trap; 2) the natural resource trap; 3) the landlocked country with bad neighbors trap and 4) the bad governance in a small country trap. He explains each of these and how they have kept approximately one sixth of the world's population marginalized and left behind in the global economy. However, all is not lost as there are ways out of the traps. This class will explain the traps, and then examine Colliers' and other scholars' agendas to break the cycle of poverty for so many people in so many countries.